[MISC  PUBS 

\Lp_s  Angeles  County,  Ca.1'  CT  C 

Supervisors,   Brd.   of.  i)  I  "f 

TMiscellaneous  publications] 

Efficient  democracy  for  Greater  Los  Angeles. 

plea  for  con true tive  cooperation  in  city, 
county  and  school  administration  as  against 
the  proposed  policy  of  county  disruption. 
1916/ 


onstructive  ooperation 
in  City,  County  and  School  Admin- 
istration as  against  the  Proposed 
Policy 


I       :  ARCH  LIBRARY  ^ 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


rS,  CA.  90024      JOHN  j   HAMILTON 


By 


Member  o_f  the  Board  of  Supervisors  of 
Los  Angeles  County 


f 


NOVEMBER  1916 

PRINTED  FOR  PRIVATE  CIRCULATION 


Los  A 


EFFICIENT  DEMOCRACY 

FOR 
GREATER  LOS  ANGELES* 


A  community  like  this  should  have  plenty  of 
elbow  room.  It  should  have  space  for  growth  and 
development  now,  and  should  not  be  cramped  after 
it  gets  its  growth.  The  question  before  the  City  Club 
today  is  whether  this  matter  should  be  considered 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  present  municipality  of 
Los  Angeles,  or  from  the  standpoint  of  Greater  Los 
Angeles,  which  comprises  thirty-seven  incorporated 
cities,  forty  unincorporated  cities,  towns  and  vil- 
lages, much  thickly  settled  rural  territory  and  a  large 
area  of  mountainous  and  desert  lands. 

It  has  always  seemed   to  me  that  the   county  was 
here    the    real    unit    of    local    development;    and    the 
longer  I  study  the  problem,  the  more  I  am  convinced 
that    Los    Angeles    County,    though    nearly    as    large 
as  the  State  of  Connecticut,  is  not  too  large  to  be 
reserved  for  the  habitation  and  control  of  the  three 
or  four  million  people  who  will  make  their  homes  in 
this    area    within    half    a    century.      Such    a    city    or 
metropolitan    district    can    easily    occupy    and    utilize 
practically   every   foot   of   the  San   Gabriel,    San   Fer- 
nando   and    Antelope    Valleys,    our   extensive   coastal 
plain,    the    Santa    Monica    and    Verdugo    Mountains, 
and    those   parts   of   the    Angelus 
and  Santa  Barbara  forests  which      LOS  ANGELES 
lie     within     the     limits     of     this     COUNTY  IS  ONE 
county.      Feasible     extensions    of      GREAT 
our    boulevards,    interurban    and      COMMUNITY 
steam    railways,    jitney   lines   and 

*An   address  before   the   City   Club   of  Los  Angeles, 
November  25,    1916. 


telephone  and  telegraph  wires  will  soon  bring  every 
part  of  this  territory  into  easy  intercommunication 
and  neighborly  relationship.  The  boulevard  system 
is,  in  a  large  way,  the  street  plan  of  this  future  Los 
Angeles;  and  the  interurban  and  jitney  lines,  modified 
to  meet  changing  needs,  will  afford  rapid  transit 
without  limit. 

Under  any  conditions,  the  proposal  of  the  City 
of  Los  Angeles  to  proceed  by  annexation  and  other- 
wise to  organize  a  city  and  county  of  the  San  Fran- 
cisco type  would  raise  many  interesting  questions, 
precipitate  many  complications  and  present  many  dif- 
ficult problems.  Under  present  conditions,  with  the 
people  of  the  United  States  facing,  or  within  a  few 
months  certain  to  face,  the  most  momentous  eco- 
nomic and  social  crisis  in  all  history,  a  crisis  which 
Los  Angeles  can  no  more  evade  than  New  York, 
Chicago  or  Pittsburg,  the  question  of  annexation,  or 
city  and  county  consolidation,  or,  reversing  the  order, 
county  and  city  consolidation,  becomes  absolutely 
vital. 

For    the    time    has    come    when    this    country    and 
every  city  and  community  in  it  must  have  a  definite 
program,    a   definite   policy   and    definite   methods   by 
which  to  readjust  their  economic  and  social  life  to  the 
new  conditions  which  the  end  of  the  war  will  bring. 
This  is  the  more  imperative  because  the  people  of 
the    United     States    have    decided     to    entrust     their 
national   administration,    until   long   after   the  war,    to 
the  party  which   emphasizes  state   as  against  national 
agency  in  dealing  with  our  great 
problems,   and  opposes  tariff  du- 
ties as  a  means  of  shielding  the 
home   market.     This  will   necessi- 
tate   voluntary    cooperation    both 
within  and  among  the  states  and 
all    of   the   communities   compos- 


ing  them  to  a  degree  and  on  a  scale  never  yet  known. 
Although  I  am  one  of  those  who  voted  for  "the  new 
nationalism"  rather  than  "the  new  freedom",  I  believe 
we  should  all  cheerfully  accept  the  policy  the  country 
adopted  and  that  we  can  and  must  make  it  win.  We 
must  intelligently,  courageously  and  resolutely  face  the 
most  difficult  situation  the  industries  of  the  country 
have  ever  been  confronted  with ;  for  the  end  of  the  war 
will  be  much  more  of  a  shock  to  American  business 
than  the  beginning  was. 

Los  Angeles,  which  has  just  gone  through  a  period 
of  severe  liquidation,  is  perhaps  better  prepared  for  the 
ordeal  than  eastern  cities  that  have  largely  abandoned 
normal  activities  and  devoted  themselves  to  feverish 
speculation  arising  from  the  manufacture  of  munitions; 
but  we  must  not  measure  the  approaching  change  by 
any  we  have  experienced  in  the  past,  or  flatter  our- 
selves that  we  shall  "muddle  through"  it,  finding  old- 
time  methods  sufficient.  The  return  of  thirty  million 
European  fighting  men  to  the  paths  of  peace;  the  addi- 
tion of  their  labor  to  that  of  millions  of  heroic  women 
who  have  become  bread-winners  and  tasted  the  dig- 
nity of  self-support ;  the  application  to  old-world  indus- 
try of  national  energies  habituated  and  hardened  by 
dire  necessity  to  team  work  such  as  we  Americans  have 
never  known;  the  sudden  stoppage  in  the  United 
States,  by  cancelled  orders  on  an  enormous  scale,  of 
factories  which  have  been  making  munitions  or  busied 
with  related  production ;  the  transfer  of  these  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  workers  to  competition  with  those  who 
have  remained  in  habitual  channels  of  production;  the 
sudden  cessation  of  the  stream  of  gold  that  is  now 
flowing  westward  across  the  Atlantic;  the  probable 
sharp  reversal  of  this  money  current;  and  the  occur- 
rence of  these  unprecedented  readjustments  at  a  time 
when  the  world's  wheat  crop  is  many  hundreds  of  mil- 


lions  of  bushels  short,  threaten- 

GREATEST  ing  a  year  of  bread  riots  in  all  the 

ECONOMIC  world's  centers  of  population, 

CRISIS  IN  have  forewarned  the  nations  and 

HISTORY  should  admonish  us  that  our 

IMMINENT  house  must  be  put  in  order;  that 

drifting  with  the  tide  of  events  will 

spell  disaster;  mat  only  by  constructive  cooperation  of 
all  the  individual  and  social  forces  at  our  command,  on 
definite  lines,  with  high  efficiency,  can  we  achieve  and 
safeguard  the  welfare  of  the  community  of  which  we 
are  a  part. 

The  program  of  the  annexationists  was  not  evolved, 
as  every  municipal  program  should  be,  from  the  nor- 
mal needs  of  the  city.  It  was  an  expedient  suggested 
by  the  uncomfortable  situation  Los  Angeles  found  her- 
self in  when  she  awoke  to  the  fact  that  she  had  built  an 
aqueduct  without  providing  distributing  systems  for 
its  water  and  electrical  power.  Nothing  could  be  more 
characteristic  of  our  common  human  nature  than  that 
those  responsible  for  the  city's  general  program,  con- 
fronted with  interest  coupons  amounting  to  $3,700  a 
day  that  must  be  "dug  up"  by  their  stockholders  (the 
citizens)  instead  of  rolling  in  out  of  the  (water  and 
power)  business,  should  propose  to  their  bosses  a  new 
issue  of  stock  and  a  colossal  extension  of  the  operations 
of  the  establishment.  The  proposal  would  have  been 
worthy  of  the  band  of  musicians  who  gave  us  the  largest 
investment  company  Southern  California  ever  boasted ; 
and,  very  naturally,  it  was  born  in  and  of  the  not  very 
cheerful  atmosphere  which  has  enveloped  Los  Angeles 
since  the  musicians  stopped  to  tune  up  their  instru- 
ments and  were  inconsiderately  prevented  from  resum- 
ing the  entertainment.  (This  comment  does  not  relate 
to  the  great  engineer  whose  fitting  monument  is  the 
Los  Angeles  aqueduct. ) 

It  was  thus  that  the  city  decided,  or  permitted  some 


excellent  men  to  decide  for  it,  that  new  territory  should 
henceforth    be    acquired,    not   because   it   was   already 
populated  up  to  the  urban  level  or  soon  would  be,  so 
that  it  would  be  ready  for  municipal  equipment  and  reg- 
ulations; nor  because  the  city  charter  was  adapted  to 
the  government  of  rural  districts;  nor  because  its  people 
needed    our   tutelage;    but   solely   because   we   needed 
it  in  our  own  business,   and  hoped  to  profit  thereby, 
and  to  conceal  from  others,   and 
especially  from  ourselves,  the  fact      COUNTY 
that  it  was  a  mistake  to  complete  a      DISRUPTION 
20,000-inch   aqueduct   before  we     POLICY 
had  a  market  in  sight  for  at  least     UNWISE  AND 
5000  or  6000  inches  of  water.  UNFAIR 

I   do   not  believe  that  the  Los 

Angeles  Chamber  of  Commerce  will  include  in  the 
printed  matter  it  sends  out  this  year  the  boast  that  this 
city  is  now  the  largest  in  area  in  the  United  States. 
Neither  do  I  believe  that  the  sensitive  future  chronicler 
of  our  local  history  will  make  prominent  in  his  story 
the  proceedings  of  the  city  council  on  that  recent  day 
when,  certain  citizens  of  the  San  Fernando  Valley  hav- 
ing petitioned  for  relief  from  storm  water,  the  council 
decided  not  to  act  because  if  one  situation  of  the  kind 
were  dealt  with,  the  many  others  needing  attention 
would  ask  for  it.  Doubtless,  the  historian  will  consign 
this  new  rule  of  municipal  action — that  only  small 
needs  shall  be  met  and  large  ones  discreetly  pigeon- 
holed—  to  the  same  limbo  of  oblivion  with  the  record 
of  that  splendid  piece  of  municipal  engineering  which 
calmly  protected  the  Los  Angeles  harbor  from  being 
filled  with  silt  by  turning  the  silt-bearing  floods  into  the 
harbor  of  Long  Beach. 

The  charter  of  Los  Angeles  is  not  any  too  well 
adapted  to  the  government  of  the  city  itself.  It  is  not 
at  all  adapted  to  the  government  of  an  undeveloped 
rural  territory  like  the  San  Fernando  Valley.  It  is  not 


adapted  to  the  beach  cities,  the  foot-hill  cities,  or  the 
large  semi-urban  territory  surrounding  Los  Angeles  and 
its  suburbs.  The  legislation  by  which  it  is  hoped  to 
persuade  some  districts  and  constrain  others  to  come 
into  the  city  and  drink  Owens  river  water  is  out  of  har- 
mony with  the  spirit  of  these  new  times  and  unfitted  to 
the  administrative  requirements  of  the  population 
affected.  The  proposal  that,  after  Los  Angeles  has 
absorbed,  not  to  say  digested,  the  territory  it  requires 
as  a  water-marketing  proposition,  other  territory  be 
given  the  option  of  coming  into  a  city  not  prepared 
to  govern  it  or  facing  for  a  time  the  costly  chaos 
of  having  no  county  government  at  all  and  then  going 
to  the  heavy  expense  of  organizing  and  maintaining 
two  or  three  new  counties,  losing 

LOS  ANGELES         the  valuable  name  and  good  will 
CITY  CHARTER     of   Los  Angeles   County  without 
NOT  ADAPTED       compensation,  is  not  only  in  vio- 
TO  RURAL  lation  of  the  golden  rule,   but  is, 

TERRITORY  unintentionally     of     course,      im- 

moral, as  every  selfish  proposal  is. 

And  it  can  be  mathematically  demonstrated  that,  aside 
from  the  businesslike  proposition  of  consolidating 
offices  of  duplicated  service,  as  we  are  now  doing  with 
the  offices  of  assessor  and  tax  collector,  and  have 
already  done  with  the  charities  and  inspection  of 
weights  and  measures,  there  is  no  possibility  of  tax 
reduction  in  the  plan.  Also,  it  is  surely  practicable  to 
devise  methods  and  secure  legislation  by  which  dis- 
criminating water  rates  shall  equitably  distribute  the 
burdens  of  operation  and  indebtedness  on  account  of 
the  aqueduct,  without  violating  the  pledges  made  to 
President  Roosevelt  when  the  government  yielded  val- 
uable rights  to  the  city. 

I  do  not  deny  that  it  will  be  difficult  to  effect  the 
charter  amendments  and  constitutional  and  statutory 
changes  requisite  for  placing  the  aqueduct  problem  and 


the  extension  of  the  city's  domain  on  a  sound  basis; 
but  the  day  is  at  hand  when  communities  can  no  longer 
operate  along  the  line  of  least  resistance,  shirking  any 
part  of  their  necessary  work  because  it  is  difficult.  For 
the  next  generation,  and  especially  during  the  five- 
year  period  of  grace  usually  assigned  for  readjustment 
to  conditions  produced  by  the  end  of  the  war,  democ- 
racies must  grapple  with  difficulties  as  stout-heartedly, 
surmount  obstacles  as  courageously  and  pursue  chosen 
policies  as  resolutely  as  those  European  populations 
whose  imperial  masters  and  bureaucratic  dictators  have 
directed  their  efforts  along  lines  of  recognized  effic- 
iency. 

Maintaining  that  there  is  a  better  way — that  the  true 
line  of  development  is  by  transferring  duplicated  func- 
tions,  one  by  one,   from  all  the  cities  to  the  county, 
until  we  have   one  great,   united, 
harmonious,    prosperous    and    lo-      COUNTY 
cally    self-governing    community;      CHARTER 
and    holding   that   the   charter   of      MEETS 
Los  Angeles  County  is  not  only     EVERY 
well   adapted   to   secure   efficient     REQUIREMENT 
and  democratic  administration  for 

this  large  and  populous  metropolitan  district  of  Greater 
Los  Angeles,  but  is  probably  the  best  instrument  pos- 
sessed by  any  such  American  community  for  local 
governmental  purposes,  I  desire  to  submit  for  the  con- 
sideration of  the  City  Club  a  few  facts  concerning  the 
county  charter  which  support  these  statements,  but 
which  are  not  yet  generally  known. 

The  county  charter  was  prepared  by  a  board  of  free- 
holders in  1912,  and  adopted  by  the  people  at  the 
presidential  election  in  November  of  that  year.  The 
fifteen  freeholders  were  Frederick  Baker,  Willis  H. 
Booth,  T.  H.  Dudley,  W.  A.  Engle,  David  Evans,  Leslie 
R.  Hewitt,  H.  C.  Hubbard,  J.  M.  Hunter,  George  F. 
Kernaghan,  A.  M.  Salyer,  Frank  R.  Seaver,  J.  H.  Strine, 


N.  W.  Thompson,  Charles  Wellborn  and  Lewis  R. 
Works.  This  board,  representative  of  all  sections  of 
the  county,  labored  long  and  faithfully  and  produced  a 
fundamental  law  for  the  government  of  this  community 
of  which  the  descendants  of  its  framers  will  some  day 
be  very  proud. 

In  an  introduction  prepared  by  Judge  Works,  the 
freeholders  announced  that  the  charter  they  had  pre- 
pared "presented  as  close  an  approximation  to  the 
commission  form  of  city  government  as  is  possible  in  a 
county".  They  did  not  say  that 

WE  CAN  HAVE  the  instrument  also  contained  pro- 
COMMISSION-  visions  which  would  empower  the 
MANAGER  county  to  adopt,  without  charter 

SYSTEM  OF  amendment,  the  commission- 

LOCAL  GOV-  manager  form,  now  approved  by 

ERNMENT  municipal  experts  as  the  last  word 

in  local  administration;  but  such 

is,  most  fortunately  for  Los  Angeles,  the  truth  of  the 
matter.  Paragraph  4  of  Section  1  1 ,  authorizing  the 
supervisors  "to  provide,  by  ordinance,  for  the  creation 
of  offices  other  than  those  required  by  the  constitution 
and  laws  of  the  state,  and  for  the  appointment  of  per- 
sons to  fill  the  same,  and  to  fix  their  compensation", 
makes  possible  the  proposal,  now  under  consideration, 
that  the  county  auditor,  who  is  ex-officio  a  member  of 
the  bureau  of  efficiency,  be  made  controller  and  county 
manager.  It  would  also  enable  the  board  to  create 
the  separate  office  of  county  manager,  if  preferred, 
though  I  regard  this  as  unnecessary.  With  an  able 
executive,  perhaps  himself  an  expert  accountant,  in 
the  auditor's  office  and  bureau  of  efficiency,  this  may 
be  accomplished  with  saving  of  a  large  amount  to  the 
taxpayers  annually. 

While  the  Los  Angeles  charter  holds  no  promise  of 
being  satisfactory  when  extended  to  a  wider  appli- 
cation, the  county  charter  could  hardly  be  improved 


were   it   specially   drafted    to   meet  the   very   situation 
which  confronts  us. 

The  county  has  moved  slowly  in  the  direction  con- 
templated by  the  charter  framers.  Not  until  1915  did 
the  supervisors  abandon  the  multitude  of  committees 
formerly  appointed  and  distribute  their  large  super- 
visory powers  into  five  divisions — general  administra- 
tion, public  welfare,  finance,  highways,  and  public 
works  other  than  highways,  one  supervisor  specializing 
on  the  work  of  each  division.  Not  even  yet  has  the 
county  been  given  so  much  as  a  taste  of  real  govern- 
ment by  commission,  and  the  commission-manager  sys- 
tem has  only  been  mentioned.  Not  until  the  election 
held  on  the  seventh  instant  did  the  county  have  a 
board  of  supervisors  chosen  in  its  entirety  under  the 
charter;  and  the  full  board  or  commission  thus  chosen 
will  not  assume  control  of  the  county  until  the  first 
Monday  in  January.  The  transition  has  been  slow  and 
the  inertia  of  the  old  county  system — which  was  no 
system  at  all — hard  to  overcome. 

Happily  for  greater  Los  Angeles,  the  two  new  mem- 
bers of  the  board  of  supervisors  just  chosen  are  busi- 
ness men  of  the  best  class,  men  of  brains  and  character, 
who  will  go  into  office  untrammeled  by  the  traditions 
of  the  old  regime,  prepared  and  qualified  to  join  the 
one  re-elected  and  two  hold-over  members  in  giving 
the  county  a  harmonious  business  administration,  as 
contemplated  by  the  charter.  What  such  an  adminis- 
tration will  mean  for  the  county,  for  Los  Angeles  and 
its  thirty-six  sister  cities,  for  the  forty  minor  centers  of 
population,  for  the  158  common  school  districts  and 
the  twenty-six  high  school  districts  of  Greater  Los  An- 
geles, we  do  not  have  to  depend  on  imagination  to 
foresee.  It  is  a  matter  of  simple  and  easy  calcula- 
tion. It  should  demonstrate  such  possibilities  of  effic- 
ient democracy  in  the  next  four  or  five  years  as  will,  in 
my  judgment,  give  Los  Angeles  the  first  place  in 


America    in    reputation    for    good 

FIRST  PLACE  local    government.     But    the    Los 

AMONG  Angeles  that  will  become  thus  fa- 

AMERICAN  mous  for  success  under  the  com- 

COMMUNITIES  mission  form  of  government 
WITHIN  OUR  should  be  the  Greater  Los  An- 

REACH  geles  that  extends  to  the  limits  of 

our  county  boulevard  and  interur- 

ban  system,  not  a  divided,  wrangling,  mutually  jealous, 
suspicious  and  resentful  trio  or  quartette  of  counties  or 
cities  and  counties.  The  reasons  demanding  that  Los 
Angeles  County  remain  undivided  are  as  cogent  as 
those  which  justified  men  in  shedding  blood  to  main- 
tain the  federal  union  a  generation  ago. 

Every  member  of  the  board  of  supervisors  repre- 
sents a  district,  at  least  a  part  of  which  is  in  the  city 
of  Los  Angeles.  The  Second  district,  that  of  Superin- 
tendent Norton,  is  wholly  in  the  city.  The  board  as  a 
whole  is  always  loyally  devoted  to  the  interests  of 
Los  Angeles.  Its  jurisdiction  over  the  great  territory 
of  the  county,  however,  compels  it  to  think  in  terms 
of  the  larger  community  of  which  Los  Angeles  is  the 
heart — the  community  which  includes  the  beach  and 
harbor  cities,  the  foothill  cities,  the  three  valleys  and 
the  mountains.  Its  direct  jurisdiction  over  all  the  rural 
territory  forces  upon  its  attention  the  many  problems 
of  the  ranchers — the  men  who  have  purchased  farm 
land  from  Los  Angeles  real  estate  enthusiasts  at  city  lot 
prices  and  must  somehow  make  it  pay  returns  thereon. 
Its  manifold  points  of  touch  with  the  seventy-seven 
centers  of  population  and  its  management,  in  a  large 
and  somewhat  nominal  way,  of  the  affairs  of  the  1  84 
school  districts  and  their  $10,000,000  yearly  revenue, 
constitute  it  as  the  custodian,  collectively,  of  the  ma- 
terial, moral  and  political  interests  of  one  of  the  most 
interesting  communities  in  the  world.  To  be  a  member 
of  such  a  board  is  a  wonderful  privilege.  It  offers 

10 


opportunity  for  public  service  greater  than  those  of  a 
member  of  congress;  equal  to  those  of  the  governors 
of  some  states.  I  believe  that  the  five  men  who  will 
inaugurate  the  first  administration  on  the  charter  plan 
in  January  realize  this  and  appreciate  the  responsi- 
bility it  imports. 

In  taking  charge  of  the  affairs  of  the  greatest  com- 
munity on  the  Pacific  Coast  at  a  time  when  that  com- 
munity is  hurriedly  preparing  to  readjust  itself  to  the 
approaching  close  of  the  war,  the  new  board  of  super- 
visors must,  without  loss  of  time,  accomplish  the  fol- 
lowing results: 

1.  Divest   the    county   administration   of    the  last 
vestiges  of  the  antiquated,  easy-going  system  of  red 
tape  which  has  given  the  public  waste  and  graft  instead 
of  economy  and  thrift,   intolerable  delays  instead   of 
prompt  performance,  and  excuses  instead  of  results. 

2.  Put  the  multitude  of  county  offices,  departments 
and  institutions,  many  of  which  are  now  operated  on 
the  go-as-you-please  plan,  into  correct  relations  to  one 
another,  into  direct  relations  with  the  board  of  super- 
visors and  under  an  efficiency  system  that  will  look  to 
team    work    in    both    departmental    and    inter-depart- 
mental service. 

3.  Establish  a  system  of  accounts,  records,  reports 
and  supervision  by  both  the  board  of  supervisors  and 
the  efficiency  bureau  which  will  insure  steadily  rising 
standards   of   individual   and   de- 
partmental   service,    with    every     HEAVY   WORK 
duty   well   and   punctually   done,     FOR   THE  NEW 
every  letter,  telegram,  telephone     BOARD  OF 
message,     and     personal     inquiry     SUPERVISORS 
promptly  answered  and  every  re- 
quest by  citizens  for  service  as  promptly  and  eagerly 
complied  with  as  if  they  arose  in  a  first-class  private 
business,  anxious  to  increase  its  earnings. 

4.  Introduce  constructive  cooperation  with  all  the 
ii 


cities,  school  districts,  and  other  public  corporations  of 
the  county,  in  eliminating  duplications  of  service  and 
other  waste,  doing  cooperative  purchasing  and  assist- 
ing one  another  in  solving  their  respective  problems. 

5.  Call  into  active  partnership  with  the  central  ad- 
ministration and  with  one  another  the  local  colleges  and 
other  institutions  of  higher  learning,  the  women's  clubs, 
the  labor  organizations,  the  chambers  of  commerce,  the 
civic  centers  and  all  the  other  organized  civic  forces  ov 
the  county  for  the  purpose  of  making  and  coordinating 
economic  and   social  surveys  of  Los  Angeles   county 
and  of  the  region  which  is  or  can  be  made  tributary 
to  it;  developing,  correcting  and  carrying  out  the  com- 
munity program,  and  doing  our  part  toward  the  state 
and  nation  during  and  following  the  approaching  crisis. 

6.  Plan  and  program  the  local  and  state  legislation 
necessary  to  free  us  from  antiquated  methods  of  doing 
public  business. 

7.  Organize  to  secure  our  fair  share  of  state  and 
national  aid  in  carrying  out  the  community  program. 

8.  Revive  and  fortify  by  enlightened  conviction  the 
old  spirit  of  faith  and  fearlessness  by  which  Greater 
Los  Angeles  has  been  made  what  it  is  and  by  which 
it  is  destined  to  become  the  best  as  well  as  the  biggest 
of  the  world's  residential  cities,  and  an  industrial  center 
the  world  will  respect. 

9.  Adopt  and  put  into  practice  as  our  standard  of 
civic  conduct  the  golden  rule. 

10.  Welcome  and  actually  utilize  for  community 
purposes  the  capital  that  the  financial  world  is  eager  to 
supply  on  bond  issues  at  low  interest  rates,  and  see  to 
it  that  the  resources  that  we  possess  are  developed  for 
the  common  good. 

To  accomplish  these  results,  petty,  personal  politics 
must  be  eliminated  at  once  and  forever.  Factional 
quarrels  must  cease.  First-class  ability  must  be  ener- 
getically and  persistently  applied  to  the  county' s-prob- 

II 


lems  of  organization   and   administration.     Under  the 
commission  form  of  government,   the  board  of  super- 
visors is  the  commission — the  directorate,  the  executive 
committee,  of  a  $20,000,000  business.      It  must  either 
appoint  a  general  manager,   or  itself  develop  the  ca- 
pacity of  a  first-class  general  manager  for  dispatching 
business    rapidly    and    efficiently. 
It  must  therefore  delegate  most  of      HARMONY 
the  detail  work.     It  should,  how-      MUST  REIGN 
ever,    keep    a    sharp    eye    on    the      IN  COUNTY 
efficiency  record  and  a  firm  hand      ADMINISTRA- 
on  the  helm.      It  must  know  that      TION 
the   work   it   delegates  is   done — 

also  when,  how  and  at  what  cost.  The  commission  plan 
has,  on  the  whole,  raised  the  standards  of  municipal 
administration  in  this  country;  but  it  has  succeeded  only 
in  proportion  to  the  amount  of  attention  the  commis- 
sion as  a  whole  has  devoted  to  the  public  business. 
Whenever  and  wherever  cities  have  tried  separate  gov- 
ernment of  departments  by  commissioners  instead  of 
government  of  the  entire  city  by  commission,  they  have 
made  administration  expensive.  The  individual  com- 
missioners, left  free  to  administer  their  several  depart- 
ments without  the  restraining  influence  of  the  whole 
commission,  entertain  exaggerated  ideas  of  the  im- 
portance of  their  bureaus,  demand  excessive  appropria- 
tions, and  make  trades  and  combinations  with  the  other 
commissioners  to  secure  them.  They  become  jealous 
of  interference  by  the  commission  or  other  commis- 
sioners in  their  departments  and  resent  the  doing  of 
their  business  in  their  absence.  They  thus  destroy  the 
commission  principle  and  disintegrate  the  governing 
body  into  three  or  five  distinct  offices,  I  am  anxious 
to  avoid  this  perversion  of  the  commission  plan  in 
Los  Angeles  County.  I  hope  to  see  Greater  Los  An- 
geles enjoying  commission  government  at  its  best, 
with  the  board  of  supervisors  acting  as  a  highly  efficient 
unit. 


Public  business  cannot  as  yet  be  transacted  with  the 
same  freedom  which  enables  the  business  man  in  pri- 
vate life  to  go  ahead  and  manage  matters  on  direct 
lines.  Lawyers,  on  and  off  the  bench,  have  seen  to  it 
that  public  officials  are  hedged  about  with  restrictions 
intended  to  make  them  honest,  but  which  only  make 
them  inefficient.  For  example,  the  law  directly  author- 
izes the  county  to  operate  a  cement  plant  and  sell  its 
surplus  product;  but  because  the  lawyers  would  not 
let  the  county  put  up  a  bond  nor  consent  to  the  city 
buying  cement,  however  cheap,  without  advertising  for 
bids  and  exacting  a  bond,  the  harbor  commission  had 
to  purchase  45,000  barrels  of  cement  from  the  trust 
i  F^  A  i  Tirr-u  instead  of  getting  a  better  article 

NICALITIES  from  the  countv-     The  Monolith 

iv/ii  TCT  DC-  nr»wir      plant   would    produce    cement    at 

IVlUol    Dti    LHJl>t       Zn  ,  ,    .f     ,       ,  11 

AWAY  WITH  90c  a  barrel  lf  the  k™y««  woul° 

permit  it  to  run  on  mil  time  ana 

sell  its  surplus,  as  the  law  intends  that  it  should. 

Not  long  ago  the  city  of  Pasadena  desired  to  pur- 
chase a  piece  of  road  machinery  which  the  county  road 
department  had  developed  and  made  in  its  own  shops, 
and  which  it  could  conveniently  spare.  I  succeeded  in 
putting  the  purchase  through,  but  only  after  running  a 
gauntlet  of  red  tape  which  required  five  times  as  much 
time  as  it  should  have  done. 

It  is  on  the  program  of  the  incoming  board  of  super- 
visors under  the  commission  plan  that  this  maze  of  red 
tape  shall  be  ruthlessly  cut  and  the  county  government 
made  an  appreciated  instrumentality  of  accommodating 
service  not  only  to  the  rural  districts  but  to  Los  Angeles 
and  every  city,  town,  village  and  school  district  within 
its  limits.  We  are  determined  that  the  law  shall  be  the 
helpmate  of  the  community,  not  its  mischief-breeding 
mistress. 

It  is  also  on  our  program  that  the  unused  and  neg- 

14 


lected  civic  energies  of  this  community  shall  be  called 
into  participation  in  the  county  administration. 

There  is  a  crying  need  for  this  change.     The  county 
and  our  cities  need  the  active  assistance  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Southern  California,  Occidental  College,  Pomona 
College,    Throop    College    of    Technology,    Whittier 
College  ,  and    every  other  institution    of    learning    in 
Los    Angeles     County.       We    can,     in     our     advance 
toward  better  things,  utilize  also  the  high  schools  and 
even  the  elementary  schools.     We  need,  far  more  than 
even  the  women  themselves  realize,  the  mother-wit  that 
is    organizd    into    wonderful    civic    potentiality  in    the 
women's  clubs.     We  must  have  the  helping  hand  of 
organized  labor,   and  must  let  the  creators  of  wealth 
know    that    their    honorable    part    in    the    community 
progress   is   recognized   at   its   true   value.      We    must 
give  a  large  place  in  our  counsels  to  the  Los  Angeles 
Chamber  of  Commerce,  which  is 
demonstrating  splendid   efficiency      ___  .  p^p.« 
in  developing  new  industries  here.      SSJriSfio 
We  must  take  into  our  all-embrac-     JJ^EN  S 
ing   combination    of   civic    forces,      r,v,r  FHRrFQ 
all    the    civic     organizations    not      h, TCT  T AV^ 
only  of  Los  Angeles,  but  of  Long      ™~~f   !  AKt 
Beach,    Santa   Monica,   Pasadena, 
Pomona,    Glendale,    Whittier — in 

short,   all   of  the  population   centers  of  Greater  Los 
Angeles. 

The  community  program  of  Greater  Los  Angeles* 
is  clearly  indicated  by  what  the  people  of  this  city  and 
county  have  done  and  are  headed  toward  doing.  It 
includes  efficient  local  government,  the  best  schools  in 
the  world,  abolition  of  the  saloon  and  all  evil  resorts, 
scientific  sanitation,  scientifically  conducted  charities, 

*  See  page  20  of  this  booklet  for  the  full  community 
program. 

15 


red  tape  abolished,  justice  within  the  reach  of  all, 
completion  of  our  good  roads  system,  elimination  of 
grade  crossings,  conservation  of  our  harbors,  forests, 
watersheds  and  ranch  lands  by  an  adequate  system  of 
flood  and  fire  protection  and  reforestation,  publicly 
owned  and  operated  transportation  facilities  to  the 
harbors  and  at  sea,  public  ownership  and  operation  of 
plants  for  securing  cheap  water,  power,  heat  and  light 
for  industrial  and  domestic  uses,  and  the  management 

of  all  these  advantages  so   as  to 

PROPOSED  insure  abundant  employment   for 

ECONOMIC  labor  and  capital  and  a  safe,  rich 

SURVEY  A  and  satisfying  community  life  for 

PRIME  all,  at  a  minimum,  cost.     To  make 

NECESSITY  our  community  program  a  success, 

however,  we  must  cease  to  follow 

the  rule  of  thumb  in  planning  our  activities.  We  must 
do  what  France,  Germany  and  Great  Britain  are  doing 
— study  national  and  world  conditions  and  fit  our  civic 
plans  and  methods  to  the  world  conditions  confronting 
us.  For  example,  who  knows  how  much  of  a  handicap 
the  Los  Angeles  municipal  power  plant  can  carry  in 
the  way  of  a  purchase  price  for  the  companies'  local 
distributing  systems?  Was  the  price  of  $10,000,000 
offered  by  the  city  for  systems  which  could  be  built  new 
and  better  for  $7,700,000,  based  on  knowledge  that 
the  city  could  pay  the  price  and  sell  the  power  to  fac- 
tories low  enough  to  enable  them  to  engage  in  interna- 
tional trade?  It  is  known  that  the  high  cost  of  power 
on  the  American  side  at  Niagara  Falls — three  to  five 
times  the  cost  in  Norway — has  driven  big  industries  to 
the  Canadian  side.  The  cry  of  "economic  waste" 
would  not  justify  city  officials  in  forgetting  that  the 
power  companies  knew  eight  years  ago  that  the  aque- 
duct would  make  the  city  their  competitor,  yet  went 
ahead  to  parallel  each  other's  lines;  that  the  average 
age  of  their  systems  is  less  than  that  of  the  aqueduct 

16 


project,  and  that  the  much  talked  of  "economic  waste" 
will  and  should  fall  on  them.  Under  the  conditions 
we  have  had  in  the  past,  cities  could  pay  what  they 
pleased  for  public  utilities  and  work  out  their  prob- 
lems in  some  way;  but  under  the  conditions  which  will 
follow  the  war,  world  trade  will  go  where  the  cheap- 
est power  is  combined  with  other  favoring  industrial 
factors.  We  should  not  blindly  take  chances  like  that. 
The  price  of  $10,000,000  offered  by  the  city  may  put 
Los  Angeles  out  of  the  running  so  far  as  foreign  com- 
merce is  concerned,  or  it  may  not.  We  should  know. 
We  should  by  all  means  have  the  economic  survey  of 
which  I  have  spoken,  and  base  our  policies  on  facts, 
not  guesswork. 

The  county  charter,  now  really  to  go  into  effect  as 
rapidly  as  the  reorganized  board  of  supervisors  can 
do  it,  opens  the  way  for  carrying  out  every  feature  of 
the  community  program.  It  will  require  many  years 
to  effect  it  all ;  but  the  year  1917  should  see  great 
strides  taken  along  every  indicated  line. 

The  citizens  of  Los  Angeles  will  readily  perceive 
what  tremendous  possibilities  of  favorable  publicity 
there  are  in  having  the  first  commission-governed 
county  in  the  United  States,  especially  when  the  county 
enjoying  that  distinction  is  the  most  productive  county 
in  all  the  land,  and  yet  can  by  the  development  of  its 
resources,  quadruple  its  present  production,  Galves- 
ton,  Des  Moines  and  Dayton  have  in  turn  held  the  cen- 
ter of  the  stage  in  the  development  of  plans  of  local 
government  in  the  past  fifteen  years.  The  next 
step  in  American  progress  in  that  field  is  to  demon- 
strate a  workable  plan  for  the  government  of  a  metro- 
politan district  consisting  of  many  cities,  metropolitan, 
suburban  and  independent,  with  semi-urban  territory 
surrounding  them;  and  Greater  Los  Angeles  has  the 
community,  the  plan  and  the  men  and  women  to 
bring  them  together. 

17 


There  is  more  than  opportunity  in  the  proposal  that 
the  colleges,  women's  clubs,  labor  organizations,  cham- 
bers of  commerce,  and  civic  organizations  generally, 
including  civic  centers,  be  taken  into  active  participa- 
tion in  the  administration  of  Greater  Los  Angeles.  It 
is  a  matter  of  two-fold  necessity.  It  is  necessary  be- 
cause this  most  American  of  all  American  commu- 
nities will  need  every  civic  force  it  can  muster  and 
combine  to  build  and  fortify  itself  for  the  tremendous 
crisis  ahead  of  it.  It  is  also  necessary  because  govern- 
ment by  politicians  and  office  holders  has  ceased  to  be 
a  practical  possibility.  Councilmen,  school  directors 
and  supervisors  now  have  a  militant  democracy  to 
serve,  and  that  democracy  will  no  longer  accept  any 
kind  of  results,  however  excellent,  that  it  does  not 
itself  have  a  hand  in  bringing  about.  Excuses,  secret 
conferences  and  the  necessary  compromises  of  both 
legislation  and  administration  will  no  longer  work  to- 
gether. Officials  cannot  do  enough  explaining  or 
apologizing  to  satisfy  an  aroused  electorate  which  has 
tasted  power  and  likes  the  flavor.  The  remedy  is  to 
let  the  citizen  in  on  the  processes  by  which  the  conclu- 
sion is  reached. 

There  is  no  occasion  for  regret  in  this  necessity  in 
this  community,  the  richest  in  the  world  in  human  re- 
sources. On  the  contrary,  there  is  everything  to  be 
gained  by  making  administration  really  democratic  in 
Los  Angeles  County.  The  grum- 

COUNTY  bling  we  everywhere  hear  about 

ADMINISTRA-  the  real  or  alleged  follies  of  city 
TION  MUST  councils,  boards  of  education, 

BE  TRULY  boards  of  supervisors  and  other 

DEMOCRATIC  officials  is  the  rumbling  of  a  dis- 
content that  is  justified,  because 

the  kind  of  officialdom  we  have  is  not  big  enough  or 
broad  enough  for  this  big,  broad  city  and  county.  It 

18 


needs  a  strong  infusion  of  efficient  democracy.  It  is 
going  to  get  it  in  the  county  government. 

It  will  at  once  be  seen  why  any  policy  of  annexation 
which  tends  to  force  an  unwilling  multiplication  of 
county  governments  would  mean  chaos  at  a  time  when 
construction  is  needed.  It  is  plain,  too,  that  what  we 
just  now  need  is  what  may  be  called  county-minded- 
ness — the  ability  and  disposition  to  see  things  from  the 
point  of  view  of  Greater  instead  of  Lesser  Los  Angeles. 

The  most  cheering  note  I  have  heard  in  Los  Angeles 
in  many  a  day  was  sounded  by  President  Langmuir  at 
a  recent  banquet  of  the  Municipal  League.  Comment- 
ing on  the  splendid  affirmative  results  of  the  charter 
election  by  which  the  voters  sanctioned  the  consolida- 
tion of  the  offices  of  assessor  and  tax  collector,  he  de- 
clared that  it  was  encouraging  to  see  at  last  a  break  in 
the  chorus  of  "no,  no",  that  the  people  had  been  giving 
forth,  and  to  hear  once  more  a  heartening  "yes,  yes", 
from  the  voters  of  the  city. 

It  is  encouraging.  It  means,  that  at  the  time  Los 
Angeles  needs,  as  she  never  before  needed  it,  to  part 
company  with  that  spirit  of  Mephistopheles  "which 
always  takes  the  negative"  and,  buckling  on  her  armor, 
courageously  to  face  new  and  as  yet  unknown  condi- 
tions, she  begins  to  be  herself  again.  I  think  we  all 
begin  to  sense  that  affirmative,  creative,  spirit  stirring 
within  us  and  moving  in  the  air.  If  we  now  cherish  that 
optimistic  impulse  and  yield  ourselves  to  the  guidance 
of  the  best  that  is  in  us,  I  hardly  dare  place  any  limits 
upon  the  things  we  may  do  for  ourselves  and  our  chil- 
dren, not  only  in  surmounting  the  obstacles  looming 
so  menacingly  in  our  pathway,  but  in  building  up  the 
greatest,  happiest,  most  prosperous,  and  most  demo- 
cratic community  in  the  world. 

JOHN  J.  HAMILTON. 


THE  COMMUNITY  PROGRAM  OF  GREATER 
LOS  ANGELES 


Being    the    Ten    Principal    Aims    and    Objects    of    the    People 
of  Los  Angeles   County 


1.  Efficient    local    government,    thoroughly    coordinated, 
firmly  held  under  public  control,   based  solidly  on  the  merit 
system,  and  extended  to  all  properly  public  activities,  insur- 
ing a   safe,    rich  and  satisfying   community   life   for  all,    at   a 
minimum  cost;  loyal  cooperation  with  state  and  nation. 

2.  The    best    schools     in    the    world,     economically     and 
democratically    managed. 

3.  The    saloon,     brothel    and     gambling    den     abolished 
throughout  Los  Angeles  County  and  in  all  its  cities,  whether 
under    state-wide    prohibition    or    not,    but    preferably    -with 
California  dry;  libraries  and  play-grounds  to  be   substituted. 

4.  The   health    of   the   people    of   the    county    and    all    its 
cities  fully  safeguarded. 

5.  The    aged,    sick,    defective,    helpless    and    unfortunate 
generously  cared  for  through  a  system  of  scientific  charities. 

6.  Red  tape  and   legal   technicalities  eliminated;   prompt 
justice  placed  within   the   reach  of  all. 

7.  The    good    roads    system    completed,    including   moun- 
tain and  canyon  roads,  fire  breaks  and  fire  trails,  and  better 
local    roads    and    bridges    everywhere;    elimination    of    grade 
crossings  as  rapidly  as  practicable. 

8.  Conservation  of  our  harbors,    forests,   watersheds  and 
ranch  lands  by  an  adequate  system  of  flood  prevention  and 
control,  including  reforestation. 

9.  Publicly   owned  and  operated  transportation   facilities 
at  sea  and  between  our  cities  and  local  harbors. 

I  0.  Public  ownership  and  operation  of  plants  for  secur- 
ing cheap  water,  power,  light  and  heat  for  industrial  and 
domestic  uses;  county,  cities  and  school  districts  to  cooper- 
ate to  promote  industry  and  secure  abundant  employment 
for  labor  and  capital. 


%/-, 


%* 


H 


